SNP plans for local income tax under siege

John Swinney, the SNP
finance secretary, and his plans for a local income tax have come under a
barrage of criticism from opposition politicians, the business community and
some trade unions who claim he has undermined the case for Scottish
independence.

Scottish
Labour has seized on remarks by Swinney at the launch of his tax plan that
he would create a Scottish collection agency to do the job if HM Revenue &
Customs (HMRC) refused to collect the tax, warning this would be an ‘extra tier’
of bureaucracy, unwelcomed by business, The Scotsman reports.

Jackie Baillie, for Labour, said that, unless, in an independent Scotland,
they believed the UK’s HMRC would continue to act as a tax collection agency,
‘then inevitably they would have to set up a separate Scottish collection
agency’.

An SNP spokesman noted Labour had failed to take into account HMRC’s existing
tax infrastructure in Scotland, which would remain after independence. ‘They
seem to think the existing tax collection system applies only to England,’ he
said.